Eyewear including prescription and other corrective eyeglasses, sunglasses, and the like is an essential part of daily life for many people. People's faces come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, such that it has historically been difficult to provide eyewear that readily fits those different faces. The width and curvature across a person's face, the size (including depth and width) of the bridge of a person's nose, relative placement of a person's eyes and ears, overall head size, and prominence of a person's brow and cheeks all affect the look and fit of eyewear. Many different shapes and styles of eyewear frames have been used over the years. In the last 20-30 year, performance sports eyewear has become increasingly popular and demanded. Many models of performance sports eyewear designed for active sports such as cycling, climbing, mountain biking, warm and cold weather extreme sports, running, and other activities utilize plastic or other polymers for the frames upon which lenses (that may be clear or tinted, prescription/corrective or plano) are mounted.
Desirable fit includes adjustment that fits to a wearer's nose bridge. For example, some people have a broad, shallow nose bridge, while others have a prominent, narrow nose bridge, or some other shape. As a matter of human anatomy, these features often correspond to one's ethnic/racial background, and certain minority populations with a particular nose bridge shape may find it difficult to obtain eyewear that fits well. Often a desirable fit includes a pantoscopic angle (between the lenses and face) that prevents unwanted contact of the lenses and or frame with one's cheeks and brow, while positioning the eyewear in a position that does not interfere with one's field of vision.
Unlike metal frames, these plastic frames typically are not easily customizable to a wearer (e.g., nose bridge, ears). In some circumstances, a desirable fit may only be achieved by custom design, or customization of an existing frame (e.g., by heating the frame until it is malleable). However, post-manufacture customization often is difficult with the nose bridge of such eyewear. Some models of eyewear mount nose pads on malleable wires attached to the bridge of the eyewear. This provides user-adjustable fit.
However, for performance sports like cycling, climbing, skiing, mountain biking, skating, or other sports where a person may fall or otherwise suffer a facial impact, the presence of metal wires in close proximity to the nose and eyes is not desirable. The possibility of injury in the event that the wire becomes broken or dislodged from the frame and/or nose pad may be greater than in frames that have only plastic or other polymer construction. Other designs that have attempted to address this have provided only an incremental (e.g., two-stage) adjustment mechanism that may not provide a wearer with a customizable fit, replacement nose pads of different sizes that may be lost, and/or other designs that may not be adjustable to someone with an asymmetrical face or other particular custom fit needs.
It may therefore be desirable to provide an adjustable nose bridge and/or nose pad system with eyewear that will allow a wearer to adjust a desired fit to his or her face (nose bridge fit, pantoscopic angle, etc.).